Chapter One Thousand Ninety-Five
3rd September 1954
Flensburg
When Arend Nuemann arrived at his new station he wasn’t particularly impressed by the red building designed to look like a castle. He had thought that he would spend the rest of his career aboard the SMS Rhineland. However, that great Lady had been put into storage with her sisters in Kiel and only needed a caretaker crew. An Oberdeckoffizier like Arend had been not only been reassigned but as the Captain of the Rhineland had told him it was an opportunity to give back to the High Seas Fleet in profound ways at the Naval Academy. Christof had been to be the Chief Gunner’s Mate aboard the SMS Berlin, one of the new Guided Missile Cruisers that was steaming for Taiwan. Arend knew that Christoph was a good fit for that. Still, he and Christoph had served aboard the same ship for the last decade and he knew that he would miss having the boy around.
“Sir?” One of the Cadets asked nervously as he entered Arend’s office, he had one of those now too. Aboard the Rhineland he had been the direct representative of the Captain, here it seemed that Arend played the same role except it was for the Academy’s Commandant.
“Yes” Arend replied, he still needed to remember that these Cadets were not the typical sailors he had ruled with an iron fist from the forecastle. Many of them had been schoolboys just a few days earlier. He was having to teach them the traditions of the Navy without breaking them too much. As it was, he managed to scare the crap out them without a whole lot of effort.
“Your wife has arrived, Sir” The Cadet said.
“Good” Arend said, “Send her in.”
That put an entirely different spin on things. Vera had said that she had business in Kiel and that she would bring the girls when she was done. Vera had already discovered that the housing for the Instructors was adequate and would be bringing Lucia with her. Teresa, Arend’s other step-daughter had gotten married a year earlier and Vera’s first grandchild was coming in a few months. Lucia was going to be starting another attempt at University here in Flensburg, finding the follow-through and sticking with a single field of study a bit difficult.
Getting up from his desk, Arend was wearing the white summer uniform of an Oberdeckoffizier and medals that had come from a life spent at sea. The most recent being the Red Eagle, enlisted grade, for his decades of exemplary service that had been awarded to him by Emperor Louis himself. He would have much rather be wearing the regular uniform that he had worn on the Rhineland but here it was formal uniforms while in the office. The white summer uniform attracted dirt in a way that had to be seen to be believed.
“You look so handsome in that uniform Arend” Vera said as with a smile as she walked in.
Then again, this uniform did have a few positive aspects to it. Coming home to Vera every night was certainly a nice change.
“How are you settling in at the new house?” Arend asked.
“It is very different” Vera replied, “Lucia actually likes that it is a lot smaller than the house in Kiel.”
“Fewer people too though” Arend pointed out. The house was part of the housing for the Academy’s Staff. Vera could easily have afforded to lease a house elsewhere in Flensburg, it would have raised questions about Arend’s finances.
“Christoph will be back next year” Vera replied, “And Teresa will visit with the baby from time to time.”
“Looking forward to that” Arend asked.
“Of course, I am” Vera answered as she looked out the window at the Tall Ships moored at the pier. “And this is such an amazing place.”
“I’m glad you like it” Arend replied.
“You couldn’t stay at sea forever, you know” Vera said, “The best you could have hoped for is to wash ashore in a place like this.”
Arend knew that Vera was probably right about that.
Washington D.C.
As the White House Liaison from the CIA, Frank Church had frequently had to explain to the President that in the strange world of Intelligence, frequently up was down, black was white and things that seemed counterintuitive were frequently the case.
“Our people ended up with the eyes of the entire world on them” Truman said as he looked at the photographs, “How on Earth are they supposed to do their job?”
“Actually, Sir, no one would believe that they are our people” Frank said, “And they are getting invited into places that they wouldn’t otherwise.”
“This was the plan?” Truman asked. From the tone of his voice it was clear what he thought of that.
“We didn’t expect that our agent would come so close to winning the race” Frank replied, “But yes, it was the plan.”
The President just harrumphed and went back to looking at the photographs. There were some pictures there that would have been extremely difficult to get otherwise. Russian soldiers and tanks in Central Asia, the warships of several nations docked at Tianjin and several other things that were of interest to the Analysts in Langley.
“What happens now?” Truman asked.
“We let them be wined and dined by European industry” Frank said, “Then in a couple weeks they’ll get their leash yanked back by us, but it will look like the Army is doing it.”